Description:
During the
entire week, we have been rehearsing on Act 2, specifically on scenes 7 (the Great
War) and 8(Coronation) that still need more development and completeness. Also, on monday we advanced a sneak peek of the school play that will be presented on Thursday's assembly. Whilst, on Saturday we went to the cultural center of the Pacific University in
Jesus María to watch “La metamorphosis” based on the implications Gregorio
Samsa confronts when transforming to a repugnant cockroach. Moreover, this
surrealist play was the perfect opportunity to observe the mechanisms surrealism
uses in order, for us, to elaborate next year’s school play. Finally, Rodrigo
Chavez was who directed the play.
Analysis:
Lights are not only about illuminating
the scene, the stage or the theatre. Instead, lights have several properties
and uses to give importance to the body movements, hand gestures and acting of
characters. Given to the temperature property of lights, during “La
Metamorfosis” sinister and dark colors such as red or blue with a cold
temperature helped to emphasize the aggression, violence and misery the
characters passed through, specially Gregorio Samsa who suffered his own
metamorphosis. Gregorio transformed himself from a disciplined and good
comerciant who was sustaining the future of his family to a repulsive and repugnant
cockroach who could not communicate or be understood by others. Thus, entrapping
himself in his own world of misery. Therefore, the red gelatins used in the
tachos helped in creating an intense, dramatic and violent atmosphere that
clearly affected the audience by literally let them feel the pain and agony
Gregorio Samsa was passing through when being a filthy unloved cockroach. For
example, during “La metamorphosis” when Gregorio finally had the guts to come
out from his room and try to communicate with Greta to tell her that he was
going to send her to the conservatory so she could accomplish her dream in
becoming a professional and well known violinist, the cold red tachos turned
on. As soon as he was released, the bright white cenital light that was
directed towards his cage, or other words, his room; immediately contrasted
with the cold red fresnels. Thus, the cenital light automatically turned off to
focus on the Gregorio’s action of leaving his lair and going towards Greta to
tell her that HE was the one that was going to afford for the admission
instead of the temporary renter who inhabited their home. Therefore, the red
gelatins contributed to this scene, especially when his very own father throwed
him an apple, injuring harshly his very own son. Whilst, from that moment, none
of his family members could recognize him, Gregorio had lost his identity and
respect.
Other characteristics of lights I noticed
that Pancho had taught us when watching “La Metamorphosis” was the direction
and intensity of the source of light through the use of fresnels, which
contributed to the interaction of characters. From dark red gelatins to smooth
purplish pink fresnels were used to contrast two complete different environments:
Violence and Happiness. For the representation of the happiness and well-being
of the family, light purplish pink fresnels were used to illuminate the entire
stage to create a sensation of contentment since the whole family was reunited
happily remembering how joyful their life was before Gregorio had transformed to
who he was now, a filthy and ugly cockroach. For example in that scene, the entire
family,(including Gregorio who in that scene came out of his isolated cage) was
dancing cheerfully while hearing to Greta’s masterpiece. A beautiful symphony
helped the lights to illustrate how beautifully Greta was playing the violin as
if she had been accepted in the conservatory she had always dreamed of. The light purplish pink fresnels gave a sense of calmeness to the entire play since so much tension had finally dissapeared for some minutes to illustrate the portrait of a happy family that is dancing and singing together with no problems or issues bothering them (well...that could have happened if Gregorio never became a cockraoch) .Finally, the smooth purplish pink fresnels gave the audience a sense of nostalgia since they could feel empathy and sympathy at the same time towards Gregorio since a simple transformation has ruined his future and the future of his family. Through this scene, we are able to see how Gregorio has placed an excessive amount of effort in a job he dislikes completely just to sustain his family and help his sister go to the conservatory.
Therefore,
after seeing this precious moment, which was quickly contrasted when Gregorio returned
to his cage and his cenital lights were turned on; he let out his deepest
secrets and set free his true intentions regarding Greta’s future despite his unpleasable
physicality as a cockroach. He transmitted that with all his will, he will try to gain that precious moment his family has always wished for. In addition, with the use of a bright intense white
cenital light facing directly towards his cage, Gregorio transformed from a
human being who was reenacting a scene of his future to his miserable present, becoming
a cockroach once again who felt even more lonelier and abandoned due to its
inablity of satisfying his family’s needs and desires.
Connections:
While watching “La Metamorfosis” it
seemed very close and similar to another theatre style we have studied before; German
expressionism. Throughout the play, the actors were covered in white powder,
painted greyish blackish bags under their eyes, acted with a pessimistic attitude and made
exaggerated distorted hand gestures and body movements. Reflecting on this
week, I reached to another connection within real life situations and issues
that usually occur in theatre; there are always bumps in the middle of the rode or inclusive when reaching the end. I mean that nothing is predictable since anything could happen at
last minute time. In our school play, there seems to be a curse haunting
us. The curse of the broken or injured
foot has affected 5 girls in our entire cast, the weirdest thing is that it has
been only their left foot, which is quite creepy enough. This can happen to
anyone. While watching “La Metamorfosis”, the protagonist who was interpreting Gregorio
Samsa had a broken finger and still was the one who required the most physical
strength, he was able to manage it, distortioning himself completely and not getting out
of character despite the injure he had. This leaded us to the idea that by
placing commitment anyway (if you are hurt), you can easily reach success. Finally, another connection I made is that in
both plays, “La Metamorfosis” and our school play “Retorno a Ayodhya” will both
use red warm jellows in different tachos to transmit the same feeling: violence
and aggression.
Reflection:
After going to see "La Metamorphosis", i have reflected on how the lights were used to transmit different purposes such as violence, happines, misery and others. Moreover, this helped me because next year our theatre style is exactly surrealism and we needed to watch and analyze how a specific mechanism is used since we are the ones directing next year. Therefore, by seeing this play, i now have a wider knowledge about the use of the lights which will be perfect for this year's one act play and next year's school play since, so far, i have as choice to do lights as one of the design elements; however im still not a 100% sure. However, something i noticed was that this theatre had mostly every source in comparison to our theatre that isn't the best at having light sources, how can we adjust these surrealitic mechanisims to the limited resources we have of lights in the school? In what way can we manage a successful product if inclusive, last week we were told that the lights can't be modified to other positions that it's established ones?
